The seniors will be part of the team of mentors of the new entrepreneurial program in the social and technological field that the UJI will launch in this academic course.

The first edition of «Mentoring courses in new methodologies to support entrepreneurs» It has been completed at the Scientific and Technological Park of the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló (Espaitec) with the diploma award act. An event that has included the participation of representatives of SECOT Castelló, David Cabedo as the academic director of Espaitec and Paco Negre in the capacity of teacher of the program and technical assessor of Espaitec.

This first 60-hour training action was carried out from April to the end of September 2017 and is aimed at the members of SECOT Castelló, a spirit-of-profit association formed by senior volunteers, professionals, managers and entrepreneurs. that they have not completed their work activity or that they have actually offered, with altruistic esperit, their experience and knowledge in business or academic management.

This initiative aims to create a group of homologous mentors who share methodology and follow-up of business projects within the Jaume I University. The action is part of the «Entrepreneurship program in the social and technological sphere» The members of SECOT Castelló will act as mentors.

The course has been divided into three training modules. The initial has followed an introduction and has served to establish the objectives of the course, the different types and styles of mentoring, along with basic information, communication techniques and social innovation. In the second module, called stages, the different stages of mentoring are subdivided into three chapters: fonaments, validation and mercat, in which the essential themes that an entrepreneurial and innovative project must follow must be dealt with. Finally, in the third module, the ecosystem is discussed with the different agents that make up its various relationships and interactions, with special attention to the closest environment.

The dynamics of the course have followed a participatory workshop type, in which key topics have been discussed in depth, contributing in most cases to examples that complement and reinforce the theoretical concepts. The result of this first edition has remained very satisfactory and the continuation of the action is to begin the mentoring process of the projects that are submitted to the call for the entrepreneurial program that will be launched in the coming weeks. A second edition of the course is planned for the next year, expanding in this way the base of mentor formats which will be explained.

This training action is included in the project «Promotion of the entrepreneurial initiative at the Universitat Jaume de Castelló: actions to encourage the creation of new start-ups and spin-offs among the university community» financed by the Department of Education, Research, Culture and Sports of the Generalitat Valenciana.